SelfHELP

Educative Leadership: The Need of The Hour

What really is this world?

When I was a kid I went to Aashadaan, run by the Saints and Sisters of the Gutters, each day a struggle to run the place and the worries didn’t unfold beyond the basic meals and necessities. I saw a little play put up by the children on hygiene, safety and the ability to help. On my way back home, all I could think of is they have so little and stay in such adversity and yet talk of such principles and values. Ironical but beautiful. And truth be told they took it more seriously than me or many I knew. In my course of volunteering there, once a couple came for adoption and after all due diligence they were all set to take the child home eagerly. The new parents asked the Head Sister “Is there a way in which you’d like for us to raise up the child?”.

After a few seconds of silence and an angel like smile, the Sister replies: “Well that’s the first time anyone has asked me that and the question itself is very assuring. Teach him to share all else will take care of itself. “

Years later I began to notice how these small learnings, these small nuggets, added to people lives creating and enabling small changes with huge impacts both personally and professionally. Then out of sheer curiosity and the need for a pattern I started to study and model leaders, mangers, mentors, teachers, educators both I learnt from and the ones I trained on their abilities to add value to others merely by their knowledge and need to share that wisdom.

Thus came in my mind this NEED OF THE HOUR Educative Leadership.

A form of leadership that inculcates a few of the following roles of a leader:

The inner need of a leader to continuously learn, grow and nurture his skill sets through research, reading, probing into the fascinating world of leadership, people management, sharpening their technical and functional competencies and doing this with consistency and enjoyment

The ability of a leader to transpolate from his vast sea of knowledge, a mechanism, framework, flowchart, plan, strategy, training toolkit and give it a shape and form for easy use and transfer to many others

A natural drive to teach, train, share, course-correct, mentor, coach and learn the art of presenting, training, conceptualizing, facilitating, consulting and co-creating worlds of knowledge that begin to help differentiate and create a USP that’s difficult to replicate

The capability and courage of course with mindful sensitivity and consideration to question, challenge, be the devil’s advocate, push, intimidate and prepare minds for the worse, for the risks, for the unspoken and unobvious. Train these minds to have faith, strength and belief in situations where it’s easy to let go.

And ofcourse do all of the above with genuinity, respect for individual space and style, study of the backgrounds and potentials, innate ability to identify strengths and limitations and help strengthen what’s strong and weaken what’s weak.

Out of all kinds of leadership theories, lessons and sciences this one has ever since been the instant way for me to identify leadership potential in another and myself. And at the end of the day isn’t that the role of a Leader. Create more LEADERS. Instead, what we at times aim for, is to create more followers.

Educative Leadership takes courage, takes control and takes focus. For now I may not have enough science to prove it’s importance. But hold on! Do I want to prove it? Maybe no. Cause I do have the belief to know what it’s worth is. And I’m sure you too know how to distinguish between a stone and a diamond. Don’t you?